My Issue Hiring Contractors While I Have Cats

I’m sorry I haven’t been updating the site as much as I’ve been wanting to, but I needed some time for myself, especially with my newest music release “Kitten Kisses” which is the second album I release meant to help alleviate feline stress and anxiety. That being said, hopefully, over the next few days, I can get back on track with sharing stories of our cats and information I’ve learned over the years.

As soon as the contractors knocked on our door, you could see Kalista dart across the apartment to get under our bed, which we’re still working at discouraging. Reason being: if we ever need to evacuate, we need to make sure that both cats are in arms reach so we can quickly get them out of the apartment.

In my opinion, it’s extremely difficult to get cats from under the bed when you’re in a panicked state, especially if your cats are easily stressed. That being said, Beau used to hide under the bed a lot the first year we had him and he would get extremely vicious, biting you hard if he’s too scared or thinks you’re going to attack him. Meaning… he’s drawn blood from us a few times over that year.

Back to Kalista though, even though she was scared I decided to remove her from under the bed and place her quickly in front of her Meowfia bed, which she scurried into and stayed in until the contractor’s voices got very quiet.

Every so often Kalista would peak her little head out of her cat cave to see if the coast was clear, but she would almost immediately head back in because a vacuum would turn on or she would hear a pipe fall, but all-in-all it seems like the Meowfia bed is a safe spot for Kalista (even though she needs to be encouraged to use it.)

As soon as Kalista is inside of the Meowfia bed she immediately starts purring and pushing herself to the back of the bed for safety. She’ll meow from inside if you call her name, but it’s very faint as if she’s saying “I’m just letting you know that I’m here, but I don’t want the others to know.”

I also played Kalista some calming music to reduce her heart rate and make sure that she was as calm as she could be. She actually loves the song “Kitten Kisses” which I love because it was actually written with Kalista in mind. I’m really glad music works for Kalista as much as it does for Beau because it’s been a huge lifesaver over the past year.

I’M SURPRISED WITH OUR CONTRACTORS

Whenever we hire anyone new we always let them know we have cats. I let them know that they are usually scared of noise, so they won’t be running around the apartment, but they need to make sure never to leave the door completely wide open because there’s the chance that they will run outside.

That being said, our front door has a built-in mechanism that allows it to remain open when nothing is in front of it. It’s extremely convenient for when you’re moving heavy objects inside or if you’re coming in and out, but it is frustrating at points when it’s misused.

So, again, I let our contractors know about our door and encouraged them to be aware of the open door… and what do they do? Ignore it.

Although my gut said I probably shouldn’t leave the contractors alone, I told them I would be getting the mail and when I came back up the door was wide open and the contractors were nowhere to be seen. I quickly started scouting the apartment for the cats, Beau was sitting in his cat tree, but Kalista was nowhere to be seen.

I checked under the bed, in her Meowfia cat cave, in the closets… everywhere she normally hides! Nowhere to be seen. So I freaked out.

You see, Kalista has been known to run out of our apartment from time to time, usually out of enjoyment and curiosity and my worry was that Kalista got so scared from a particular noise the contractors made which caused her to run into the hallway to find me.

I asked the contractors how long the door had been open or if they had seen our youngest cat dart around the house and they shrugged saying they didn’t see anything and that the door was open for a while. I could feel the blood rush out of my face. Firstly, who in the right mind would EVER leave a front door open in an apartment, especially when the owner/tenant wasn’t inside since there’s a big chance someone will just walk in. (Which we experienced when the building had our windows redone. We had a number of strangers walk into our unit without knocking or asking for permission… weird, right?)

That being said, the fear of someone walking in and robbing us was very low on my priority/worry list and I just wanted to make sure Kalista was okay.

I ran down our hallways to find Kalista, and still, there was no sign of her. When I had exhausted all of the places to look for her outside, I came back in to find Kalista and found her hiding behind the tower of my computer. Phew!

I don’t know if Kalista was there the whole time, or if she had made her way there when she had the courage to move, but I sure was glad to see her! I placed Kalista back in front of her Meowfia bed (which I placed by my feet) and she remained there for the rest of the time the contractors were here.

This time even after the contractors left, Kalista stayed in the Meowfia bed all warm and cozy which made me so happy.

Other than that there’s not much else to report about the experience. I am still surprised with how careless the contractors seemed in regards with the door though. I’m just really glad both cats are safe and am glad we’re not hiring anyone else anytime soon.

So pet parents, what would you have done in this situation? Do you have any advice for me for future contractors? Let me know in the comments below!

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We don’t like strangers coming into our house, especially worker guys that make lots of noise and scare us. We usually hide under the bed when they are here. We’re glad Kalista stayed inside and you found her.

I might sound like paranoid polly but having previously lived in a city that “saw it all: I trust NO ONE; .., not even
family with tuna and makerull….if they got out… I doubt I’d see either of them ever again…mackerull because he’s feral and tuna just because he’d think it was the greatest adventure of a life time…as far as someone coming IN; if I aint home; you ain’t gettin in; have had “friends” steal from me so……..

oh geeze, I’m so sorry to hear about your “friends” stealing from you. Luckily, I haven’t experienced that yet (to my knowledge), but I’m hoping that never happens.

I feel you on the “they won’t come back” if they escape. I feel like we’re pretty okay with Beau (even though he was a stray) because he seems to always want to come back home, however, Kalista is still too curious for her own good. The other day I had to chase her down the hallway… silly cat.